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OUTSIDE_MOD
November 29, 2025
On a talk show recently, Townsend gave a
thumbnail description of Quadrophenia as a Townsend was promoting the new
story about a guy who doesn't get the girl. "Quadrophenia" ballet-- an
idea that sounds a hell of a
That is a ridiculous oversimplification-- lot like "West Side Story",
it isn't really what Quadrophenia is about. doesn't it?
What it *is* about is two different things,
one of which doesn't really work terribly well.
Townsend is a guy who's always got an eye on
the possibilities of new technology, and when Two-channel
there was a big push for quadrophonic sound "Hi-Fidelity Stereo"
systems, he came up with the idea for a was a big hit, so
project that used all four sound channels: he they decided to push
was going to do a guy with a four-way split it further, to
personality, with each personality four-channels.
represented by a member of The Who.
Along with *four
That grand concept only barely survives in channel* vinyl
the finished product, to my ear mostly in records, that were
the song that closes "Can you see the real actually backwards
me-- me, me, me, me... " where the word compatible with the
"me" is bouncing around in the four existing stereo
channels, coming at the listener from turntables.
different directions.
Unfortunately
What Quadrophenia is *really* about is we were mostly
a young man trying to live his life as happy to listen
a member of a sub-culture, one of the to the "degraded"
"Mods"-- one of a handful of the first To my ear, two channel version
teen youth subcultures that emerged Jimmy has of the music,
after World War II in the era of the a coherent, without spending
"absolute beginners". unified money on yet
character-- another equipment
In the United States, the upgrade, so
Mods and their weird beach His problem "quad" fizzled.
turf wars with the Rockers is "where do
were completely forgotten I belong?"
among kids in the late 60s not so much
and early 70s-- making sense "who am i?".
of "Quadrophenia" is how most
of us learned about them.
It's really easy to look down
on these things as silly,
shallow fads, but that's
often not the way they feel What I hear in Quadrophenia is
from the inside-- it may someone who's been reaching for
be the way they end up, a new beginning but has found
but it's not the way they the way blocked.
begin. The Mods were after
something, there were real He's tried to master the
real reasons they wanted look, but feels like he's
something besides the never quite gotten it down.
baseline normal mainstream.
The new fashion-- and the new drugs--
was supposed to be a new way to be,
but something about it is always
disappointing.
"How come the girls come on oh so cool/
The cool look was Yet when you meet 'em, every one's a fool?"
supposed to be a way
you could identify He finds the Ace Face--
cool people... the coolest guy you've
ever seen-- now works a
If you think of it straight job as a bellboy.
as just shallow
status-seeking There's no real
you're missing that freedom anywhere,
reach for something everywhere you
beyond that. look you're stuck
taking orders
from someone.
I've always had the feeling that the
early Who songs were often about the
fantasy, but Quadrophenia was the reality.
Like the song "The Kids Are Alright", which--
using the rule of thumb that "dancing" is a
euphemism-- was about a guy being super-cool
about his polygamous open relationship-- but in
"Quadrophenia" (at least in the film script)
after Jimmy "gets the gil" he gets angry that is
not their own private story-- he's got something
like a conventional angry jealousy reaction,
which the other kids don't think is alright.
Then there's that really early "Who" song,
back when they were still "The High Numbers",
"I'm the Face": It's a fantasy of a posturing
male superiority:
"I'm the face baby, is that clear/
I'm the face if you want it/
I'm the face if you want it, dear/
All the others are third class tickets by me, baby, is that clear"
That phrase "I'm the face if you want it"
comes back in "Quadrophenia" where it's
screamed in anguish-- posture as hard as
you want, but you don't often get away
with it, do you?
But it turns out that "I'm the Face" wasn't even
written by the Who. That song-- and the whole concept
of them as a Mod Band-- was the idea of a guy who was Pete Meaden
very briefly the band manager. The Who weren't really
a bunch of Mods, they were mod-adjacent, perhaps, but
you could call them opportunists dressing up a
bit and trying to find ways to appeal to the kids...
"I Can't Explain"
"Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"
"My Generation"
Townsend says that Quadrophenia isn't autobiographical--
but it's apparently based on the experiences of some Who
fans that they knew back in the early days.
I wouldn't say that the Who didn't
know anything about the mod scene, but
they're one step removed from it-- maybe
it's a little unfortunate this is our
main window into it all...
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